


10 hours looking at my ceiling

by sootcharlie



Category: soothouse
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Jack Soot-Centric, Platonic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:21:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29330718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sootcharlie/pseuds/sootcharlie
Summary: Jack's losing faith in the 7 marks on his arm. The only one highlighted is his, and it's not even in a nice color. But he hopes to find them. He has to.
Relationships: Soothouse - Relationship, like. the entire group
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	1. yellow

**Author's Note:**

> heyhey just wanted to say that this au is in NO way intended to be romantic especially because everyone in this au is de-aged and in high school age  
> jack: 17  
> dan: 16  
> matt: 15  
> rhianna: 17  
> wilbur: 16  
> david: 18  
> charlie: 16  
> 

Jack knew he was the first of something, but he just didn’t know what. The countless nights spent staring up at his car’s roof looking at the all but one uncolored marks scattered on his arm. There were seven in total. The only one that had a color was his own, the third one, which was some shade of yellow. 

He just wishes he could get rid of them, honestly.

They’ve been with him for a few years now. About four, so that’d make him 13 at the time of getting the marks. Which makes sense, considering what happened, but he still doesn’t know how exactly. 

The nights that he spends sleepless trying to figure out what any of it could possibly mean, what it could lead to for him doesn’t seem worth it if it’s going to result in him rotting away. He’d much rather just get some makeup and cover over them at this rate.

The man’s dreams don’t help him either. Countless dreams of his hand brushing up against someone else’s, fingers tightening around theirs as he’s welcomed into some kind of family. A shade of magenta is in their eyes. 

Those are always the days he wakes up feeling worse than usual, realizing that the reality that he so desperately desired was taken away from him in a matter of seconds.

He remembers the colors from his dreams. He notes them down every time, as if they’d mean something to him. Because they have to. They always have to mean something, Jack. Over analyze everything and be cautious of your surroundings.

That’s been his life motto for a while now. It’s not a good one, by far, but it’s still one that he can live by.

Things seemed hopeless for him. Not a single hint of anyone, and he’s already hit 17. Almost graduated high school.

Until he finds the book in the school library.

Soulmate Marks. The cover was exactly what he was looking for. Someone’s arm sticking out with a mark, albeit not the same as his, it was still a mark. Pages upon pages of the info he’s been looking for for years.

Why this was in a school library? He doesn’t know, but he could care less about that at the moment and just focus on the matter at hand.

From what he reads, he finds out a lot more than what he originally knew. Info that he wish he knew at 13. The man takes out his notebook and starts to write down things he thinks can be helpful, needing it for later. Just in case.

Just in case.

\---

INFO ON SOULMATE MARKS  
( If you’re not Jack [me] and reading this stay out )

More soulmates = easier to find them due to more marks?

Marks glow if meeting one of them, can either glow pure white or a color  
\- Pretty sure mine glows a color due to my own being yellow

You’re not given any info on your soulmate, you just have to pray you find them

Some people don’t even find their soulmates in their time of living

Marks can form at any age due to anything, not everyone is born with marks

Typically colored marks are associated with family marks, in which those you find will be people you consider as family  
\- I don’t have any friends or family so works for me

\---

He doesn’t even know how long he’d been reading the book for until his name was called by the library staff. Something about them having to close up, being about two minutes before closing hours.

 _It’s already that late?_ Jack quietly questions himself, looking up at the clock. _Ah. Sure is._ He let out a slight chuckle due to nervousness, quickly putting the book back where he found it. No need to get the school staff on him now, already deemed as the quote unquote problem child of the school. 

The walk out was silent, but he had a smile on his face this time. He felt confident.

And once again, it was back to sleeping in the car, driving just slightly far away from the school so that he wouldn’t get the cops called on him for seeming like a creep or something. That was always a fear of his. He sighed, turning over in the backseats of his car. Even though it was small, it still felt strangely comforting to him.

The notebook sat tucked under his arm, as if it were his own child. He got so far. He wasn’t just going to let this thing go now, when he almost had what he’s been searching for for years.

And yet, days passed on and on. He still felt hopeless. The same dreams kept reoccurring, this time more vivid and scarily specific, even for what he’s researched. Still, when he woke up, he doesn’t remember much.

A hug maybe, someone talking to him. Magenta with a welcoming smile.

Though it always brought great sadness to him, he felt comfort in the color. He always saw it highlight when looking at his mark in the dream. And yet, they had no face. 

He remembers waking up and looking at everyone in his school, trying to search for someone that could possibly be them. But nobody matched.

At this rate he thinks his mind just made up an imaginary person to make him feel better about not having found his soulmates yet. Wouldn’t be surprising, but it’d still be sad. 

He sees people in the school hallway holding each other tightly, and, oh, their marks are glowing! How delightful! How absolutely wonderful! 

The yellow-marked man proceeds to curse them out in private. It’s not their fault that he’s unlucky, but he sure as hell is gonna take it out on them in private if he has nothing else to blame his crippling loneliness on.

He has a few months left of school at this point, and he’s getting hopeless.

He doesn’t think that it’s meant to be.


	2. red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a new soot joins the party! we're back in business, babey

It’s been a few months since Jack’s first discovery about soulmate marks, and he still has no leads. It’s just sad, really, he thinks to himself with a slight laugh. 

The most charismatic guy in class, the one that all the girls would swoon for now the one left in the end without a soulmate of any kind. 

He knows his mark isn’t associated with romance, and he’s honestly glad. He just wants someone that he can say hi to every day at this point, even if they meet through some matching marks on their arms.

But Jack isn’t the type to let his problems get in the way of whatever he’s going for. Let it be his goals, his life, or even school.

And that’s how he finds himself walking down a random street at 3 in the morning. It sure may not be the best tactic to get away from his problems, but it’s efficient, and that’s all he cares about. If he just doesn’t think about his problems and walks away from them, they’ll have to go away eventually.

During his walk, he wonders if he still has some spare funds left to get himself a snack from the local supermarket. It’s been a bit since he’s picked himself up a snack and not some put-in-the-microwave for a full meal deal kind of shit.

He knows that he usually can’t pick up anything due to how little money he has, but checking his wallet this time around, he seems to have enough. 

Walking down the sidewalk on his way to the store, he sees a boy, maybe around his age, huddled in an alleyway with his knees up to his chest. He doesn’t seem to notice Jack, so he passes by without getting the attention of the other.

Now, don’t get Jack wrong. He isn’t doing this to be a dick.

He just wants to see if he can also buy him a snack. Jack recognizes the look in the kid’s eyes. Tiredness. He knows that kid must have been through some shit, that look doesn’t just come from anything. 

The supermarket’s doors slide open, and he steps inside, sighing at the fresh scent of the store. It’s always refreshing being in this place, stuffy car aside. 

It takes him a bit to remember where the snacks are, not having actually browsed around for a while. He quickly makes his way over to them when he does see them. He reaches his hand out to grab a couple of bags of peanuts, but stops.

What if the kid has a peanut allergy? Am I just going to accidentally kill an innocent man if he does happen to have one?

..Sunflower seeds it is!

He grabs a bag of cashews for himself and sunflower seeds for the mystery man. Checkout was always the hardest part, because of how slow they went for his standards. He just wanted to bag it up and be gone, not have to talk about his life.

The cashier hands him the bag that’s way too large for holding just those couple of small snack bags, and he walks out with a small ‘thank you!’. The man holds the bag close to him as if it’d vanish if he held on any lighter, and walked back to the alleyway.

Good. The guy was still there.

But sadly, still just staring at the wall. Jack slid down next to him and tapped his shoulder, making him jump.

“W- What the fuck?!” He yelped out, but his eyes slightly lost that sense of cautiousness upon seeing Jack’s face.

Slightly.

He still held his guard up.

“Oh, I recognize you! SMP Academy, right?” The mystery kid asks, and the yellow-marked man nods. Jack thinks he should recognize this guy. Either by voice, face, or anything, but he just can’t seem to pinpoint who he is. 

He tightens his grip that he has on the red hoodie he’s wearing.

“Got you this, you looked.. sad, to say the least? I saw that look of tiredness. Doesn’t come from just normal exhaustion. Of course, I’m not gonna ask you to say what fucked you up or anything.” Jack started. He knows this is probably an awkward first talk, but he can’t seem to care anymore. It wasn’t like this guy was going to be one of his soulmates anyways, so he better make the best out of anyone he talks to. He hands the guy the sunflower seed bag and watches his eyes light up.

“Thank you. Really.” He started, trailing off. They fall into a silence, not knowing what much to say. 

It’s awkward to say the least, but Jack’s comfortable. 

He looks around for any point of conversation, something to maybe make the guy talk just that bit more so that they aren’t left in silence at 3am in the alleyway to some random supermarket.

There’s two random initials drawn in front of them. Or, one, if Jack doesn’t count the one that’s been clearly angrily scribbled over in red chalk by who he could only assume whoever ‘D’ was.

“What’s up with the chalk?” The messy brown-haired man asked, looking over at the red hoodie-wearer. 

“Ah, just an old thing a friend and I did. We wrote each other’s initials on here, said this was our hangout and that if we were ever lost, to come here. ..He never came back, ended up ditching me.”

“..I’m sorry to hear that.”

They went into silence once more.

“It’s fine.”

Jack could tell it wasn’t, but he dropped it for now.

The two were left in silence for another few minutes, interrupted by Jack once more. 

“Never got your name by the way, D.” He motions over to the initials, and the man’s eyes widen in realization, and he breaks out into laughter. Jack follows after. He quite enjoys the presence of the other.

“Dan. You?” He says, wiping a tear out of his eye from how much he had been laughing.

“Jack.”

He gets up, to Dan’s confusion, and takes out some water and a paper towel from his bag. Pouring water onto the towel and wiping down the scratched off initial, he picks up the discarded chalk on the ground and replaced it with his own. J.

“There we go. Dan and Jack.”

He doesn’t realize it, but the red mark on his arm is glowing under his long sleeve.

  
So is Dan’s yellow.


End file.
